Note to Editors: English and Afrikaans voicenotes from DA Leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, are attached. Photos here, here, here, here and here.
The following speech was delivered by Geordin Hill-Lewis, Leader of the Democratic Alliance at the second of the “Working For All Tour” stops, in eThekwini.
A few weeks ago, the Democratic Alliance launched our Manifesto.
It contains detailed plans for water, electricity, safer communities, cleaner towns and cities, jobs, infrastructure, professional government and fighting corruption. The DA’s manifesto is a promise.
And if I am going to ask you to trust the DA with this city, I believe I have a responsibility to come here personally, stand in front of you, look you in the eye, and tell you what we intend to do with that trust.
Our promise is actually very simple: We will get your municipality working. Because the destruction of South Africa’s towns and cities is not normal. And it is not inevitable.
We should never accept it as our future.
I know from my own job as a mayor that local government is not abstract. It is the water that comes out when you open the tap. It is whether the streetlight outside your house works. It is whether somebody answers the phone when you report a problem. It is whether your rubbish gets collected.
That is how government is supposed to work. And when those basic things work, people start believing in their city again. Businesses invest. People build homes.
Young people start seeing a future for themselves where they grew up. In other words, hope returns.
That is the future I want for Durban.
This week, our DA representatives discovered that there are now 13 000 active water leaks across eThekwini.
Public reports just last month put the backlog at more than 12 000 leaks and reported that the City had only 56 internal plumbers available to deal with a crisis of this scale. Thousands upon thousands of leaks. And very few people to fix them.
And while that water pours into the ground, communities across Durban are told that there isn’t enough water to go around.
In June, eThekwini’s ‘non-revenue water’ reached 65%. ‘Non-revenue water’ is just a fancy name for water that cannot be billed for. It is lost somewhere in the system.
That means for every 100 litres of water entering the municipal system, roughly 65 litres could not be accounted for because of losses such as leaks, together with theft, illegal connections and other losses in the system. Only around 35 litres were getting to the end of the pipe and to your homes.
That is an extraordinary level of failure. And the cost does not simply disappear. You, the ratepayer, pays for the water that was treated. You the ratepayer pays when a pipe bursts and a road has to be dug up. That is not sustainable.
You cannot keep asking paying residents for more money while losing water at this rate. And the financial consequences are now enormous.
By the end of March, eThekwini’s debtor book had already reached R44.5 billion. Water accounted for about 42% of that debt.
The City’s own planning documents project that total municipal debtors could reach R50 billion by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.
Think about the scale of that. This is a municipality with an annual budget of R75.3 billion. And its debtors book is heading towards R50 billion. That is a red flashing warning light. We have to break that cycle.
*I want to make an announcement here today:*
Haniff Hoosen and the entire DA team in eThekwini will make fixing Durban’s water system the number one service-delivery priority of a new DA government in this city. Number one.
Because everything else becomes harder when the most basic service of all does not work. Our first job will be to stop wasting the water Durban already has.
That means a massive, relentless programme to fix leaks.
If the City needs properly procured private contractors to clear the backlog, then use them. We are not interested in ideological arguments about who holds the spanner. We want the leak fixed.
Our manifesto explicitly commits DA governments to recruit the technical expertise municipalities lack and to put engineers back at the centre of infrastructure decision-making. And we will make performance visible.
The DA manifesto commits our municipalities to publishing information about where water leaks are, how long they have been open, how quickly faults are being repaired, how much is being spent on maintenance, and whether the system is improving. Because transparency creates accountability.
If there are 13 000 leaks today, residents should be able to see whether there are 12 000 next month.
Then 10 000.
Then 5 000.
Then 1 000.
Government should be able to show you, week by week and month by month, that things are getting better. That is what measurable government looks like.
*Secondly, we will put the money you pay for water back into water.*
Our manifesto commits DA governments to ringfencing water revenue and reinvesting it into the infrastructure that keeps the taps running. Replacing ageing pipes. Repairing leaks. Upgrading wastewater systems. Expanding capacity where communities are growing. And Durban desperately needs that investment.
We need to invest every available rand we can responsibly free up into rebuilding the infrastructure under Durban’s streets. And that means making choices.
*A DA government will cut waste.*
We will cut unnecessary vanity projects.
We will cut spending that exists because politicians like cutting ribbons.
We will cut mismanagement.
And we will redirect every rand we responsibly can towards the infrastructure on which this city actually depends.
Thirdly, where the City does not have enough capital to rebuild infrastructure quickly enough, we will bring in responsible private investment.
*We will partner with people who can finance, build, maintain and operate infrastructure under clear contracts and strict performance standards.*
Again, I do not care about the ideology. I care whether water comes out of your tap.
That is the common-sense government the DA brings. And this is what I want people to understand about our manifesto.
We are not asking you to vote DA because we are pointing out what is wrong. South Africans already know what is wrong. You live it.
We are asking you to vote DA because we know how to fix things. We have shown it right here in uMngeni.
Today on the plane there was a resident of uMngeni on the flight with me. I want to say it because it is relevant – he is black South African. He came up to me and he said, “I am so lucky to live in uMngeni. I feel like I hit the jackpot. It is the best place to live in KZN, because it is DA governed.”
Now I want to say that there are many, many other people who feel like they want to give the DA a chance. I want to speak particularly to people here who have never voted DA before.
I am not asking you to vote for us forever. I am not asking you to agree with us on every issue. But I am asking you to give us a chance to show you what we can do.
*I want to guarantee you today that we will not disappoint you in Durban.*
We will honour your vote by making sure we work every day for every community across the city. The DA does not work for this community or that community. We work for everyone, and we will serve everyone with integrity.
We have shown it in uMngeni.
We have shown it in Cape Town.
We have shown it in Midvaal.
And Durban has an opportunity to choose that future in November.
Imagine this city with five years of stable DA government. Five years in which the number of water leaks comes down every month. Five years in which money collected for water goes back into water. Five years in which officials understand that performance matters. Five years of building.
That is what a DA vote here can give to Durban.
Give us five years. Judge us on whether the leaks come down. Judge us on whether your municipality answers your call. Judge us on results.
Our manifesto is optimistic for a very simple reason: The DA already governs places where the better results are clear to see.
We have done it. We are doing it. And we will do it.
We know that South Africa can work – for everyone.
Durban can work.
Umlazi can work.
KwaMashu can work.
Phoenix can work.
Chatsworth can work.
Pinetown can work.
eThekwini can work.
So do not settle for another five years in which your city goes backwards.
Vote directly for the only party that can fix things. Give the DA the chance to get Durban working.
Choose change that works. Because when Durban works, KwaZulu-Natal is stronger.
When Durban works, South Africa is stronger.
And together, we can prove once again that South Africa can work – for everyone.